The reason for asking is because I am hoping that I can stop using my Mac mini server at my audio rack, and migrate to a compact NAS which I can hide in my study room.

Otherwise the alternative is to use my current general purpose PC in my study as the NAS, but I suspect this won't be ideal as I have to get Jriver for it, and also the fact that it could be in use by other people doing other stuff when I need it to concurrently stream my music for listening.

I suppose I could use my Mac mini as the NAS / server but it takes up more space than a NAS, as it's got external hard drives and power supply. Some more I may have to purchase the Mac version of Jriver to use it, which would be annoying.

Jriver media can run in the background of your PC even when other people are using it..Unless they are going to be doing very intensive tasks, I don't see the issue.

NAS is still an option, but if the tiny NAS that you are thinking of (smaller than macmini with external hdd and PSU) is not going to be fast.What about using a notebook?

Either way, you'd already be saving rack space if using the Lumin as both a streamer and a DAC.

Jriver media can run in the background of your PC even when other people are using it..Unless they are going to be doing very intensive tasks, I don't see the issue.

NAS is still an option, but if the tiny NAS that you are thinking of (smaller than macmini with external hdd and PSU) is not going to be fast.What about using a notebook?

Either way, you'd already be saving rack space if using the Lumin as both a streamer and a DAC.

I was looking at a 6 bay NAS. Not sure if that is considered fast enough. But I had the impression most common NAS like Synology is fast enough as media streamer, could be wrong of course.

I can tuck my NAS away out of sight while my Mac mini which runs on batteries with a separate connected charger is seriously troublesome with too many pieces (4-5 Pcs of stuff). Also severe limitation in storage capacity with only a 2TB external drive. Plus I always wanted a NAS to back up all my stuff anyway, so I would be saving space by using the NAS alone if possible.

Anyway we are digressing too much. My original query was basically trying to find out whether there was any limitation to using the Lumin with a NAS running minimserver as opposed to an audio PC running Jriver.

I was looking at a 6 bay NAS. Not sure if that is considered fast enough. But I had the impression most common NAS like Synology is fast enough as media streamer, could be wrong of course.

I can tuck my NAS away out of sight while my Mac mini which runs on batteries with a separate connected charger is seriously troublesome with too many pieces (4-5 Pcs of stuff). Also severe limitation in storage capacity with only a 2TB external drive. Plus I always wanted a NAS to back up all my stuff anyway, so I would be saving space by using the NAS alone if possible.

Anyway we are digressing too much. My original query was basically trying to find out whether there was any limitation to using the Lumin with a NAS running minimserver as opposed to an audio PC running Jriver.

It is fast enough...The whole purpose of a NAS is to stream media anyway.. I was just saying the user experience when adding/editting music or metadata is different.

If you are looking for an NAS, do consider the power required to operate it. The power supply to the NAS does makes a different to the sound quality. If the power requirement is too high, then buying a linear power supply for it in the future maybe a problem. I am also not sure if having more harddisk in the NAS will affect the sound quality. Having more harddisk will also create more heat, which requires more fan or higher fan speed, which in turn creates more noise.

The processor in the NAS is fast enough to do seamless 24/192 music streaming with ease. If you are using Lumin software on an ipad, then the initially loading time maybe long (depends on the size of your library). If you are using Linn's Kinsky, then the loading time is instantaneous.

If you are looking for an NAS, do consider the power required to operate it. The power supply to the NAS does makes a different to the sound quality. If the power requirement is too high, then buying a linear power supply for it in the future maybe a problem. I am also not sure if having more harddisk in the NAS will affect the sound quality. Having more harddisk will also create more heat, which requires more fan or higher fan speed, which in turn creates more noise.

The processor in the NAS is fast enough to do seamless 24/192 music streaming with ease. If you are using Lumin software on an ipad, then the initially loading time maybe long (depends on the size of your library). If you are using Linn's Kinsky, then the loading time is instantaneous.

If you can afford, go for usb3 or thunderbolt enclosure as they beat any nas hands down. Nas uses LAN which is not very efficient and has longggggg latency which cannot be fixed. There are enclosures like thecus.

If need to for for nas, choose raid 0,1, 10 for performance and avoid raid 5 & 6 though I am on 5 as it is much slower but good balance between performance and economical protection. Set the drives to never sleep as the latency to wake up can contribute clock shifts.

From the ISO, you are able to extract the DSF/DFF individual files (the stereo and/or multichannel layers have different files). Usually for stereo DSD files per album, they can be as small as a few hundred megs to 1GB ish files). Multichannel causes the ISO files to have a much larger size.

I recommend using the Lumin app which is must more faster than using DS audio app. I'm not sure whether you are aware, Synology media server may down sample audio before output to Lumin (this is to ensure better DMA compatibility), so if it's on, you can turn it off.